torso

Forms

torso m (plural torsi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin tursus (“stalk, stem”), known from glosses and inscriptions, a variant of classical Latin thyrsus (“stalk of a plant”).^[2][3][4][5] The Latin word was a poetic and technical borrowing, used by Pliny and Columella, of Ancient Greek θύρσος (thúrsos, “plant stalk, Bacchic staff”), which Greek itself took from an unidentified language;^{[2][6][7][8][1]} DEI calls it a substrate relic, and Zingarelli and GDLI place its source in Asia Minor.^{[2][6][7][8][1]} DEI suggests that the move of the ⟨r⟩ was helped by Latin truncus (“trunk”).^[6] The learned doublet is tirso.^[3][1]

The same word is Old French tros, Old Occitan tros and Catalan tros, the source of Spanish trozo (“piece”) and Portuguese troço.^[3][6][9] Italian dialects have Piedmontese trus and Sicilian trussu for a cabbage stalk.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, for what is left of a fruit or plant once the pulp or leaves are removed: Io credo che ci serà oggi dato del fango e de' torsi.^[2][10][4]

Semantic evolution

Giovanni Villani tells how Charles of Anjou's army had to live on cabbages and their horses on the stalks (e' loro cavalli di torsi).^[8][10] The sense of the human trunk, from the neck to the waist, appears in Luigi Pulci before 1484.^[2][11] From 1612 a statue lacking head, arms and legs is a torso; a note to the Malmantile of 1688 explains it as a painters' term for the body alone.^[2][11] The plant and fruit senses have passed largely to the diminutive torsolo (1714).^[2][12]

The artistic sense spread across Europe: French torse (1676), German Torso (1751) and English torso (1797), all first of sculpture.^[11][13] English had taken the word earlier through French as torse, in the 1620s, and used torso for a living body by 1865.^[13] Spanish and Portuguese also have torso.^[1]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses torsi for plant stalks or cores.^[2]
• Before 1484 – Luigi Pulci uses torso for the human trunk.^[2][11]
• 1612 – Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger uses it for a statue without head and limbs.^[2]
• 1676 – French torse is recorded.^[11]
• 1714 – The diminutive torsolo is recorded.^[2]
• 1797 – English torso is recorded for the trunk of a statue.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The stalk of some herbaceous plants, especially the cabbage, stripped of leaves and flowers.^[4][14][5]
2. The core of an apple or pear, containing the seeds: Butta il torso nel bidone dell'umido.^[4][14][7]
3. The cob of maize, the tutolo.^[4][14][15]
4. (figurative, colloquial) A clumsy or useless person.^[4][15][5]
5. The human trunk, from the neck to the waist: a torso nudo.^[4][14][7]
6. A statue lacking head and limbs: il torso del Belvedere.^[4][14][5]

Word family

• torsolo
• torsolata

Related words

• tirso
• Latin thyrsus
• English torso

Usage notes

In Dante Torso is the French city of Tours (Dal Torso fu, of Pope Martin IV), a separate word adapted from the city's name.^[6][10] Wiktionary gives both a closed and an open stressed vowel.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
6. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3835
7. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse